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Tyler Perry Studios
Tyler Perry Studios (TPS) is an American film production studio, founded by actor, filmmaker, and playwright Tyler Perry in 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia. The studio occupies two former Delta Air Lines affiliated buildings in the Greenbriar area of southwest Atlanta, and includes 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) of sets and office space. Its opening, in the fall of 2008,2 was attended by Patti LaBelle, Sidney Poitier, Will Smith, Cicely Tyson, Oprah Winfrey, and Hank Aaron, among others.3Through 34th Street Films, a production arm of Tyler Perry Studios, Perry guides the work of other filmmakers.4 In 2015, Tyler Perry completed purchase of the former Fort MacPherson complex, and the film studios are in the process of being moved to that location. Tyler Perry Studios was first established as The Tyler Perry Company, Inc., and was rebranded as Tyler Perry Studios in 2006. Besides Perry's own projects, The Walking Dead also utilizes Tyler Perry Studios to film scenes set in The Kingdom. History Perry has full ownership of his movies, and Lions Gate Entertainment serves as his distributor for all of his films.5 His first movie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, produced on a budget of $5.5 million, became an unexpected commercial success prompting widespread discussion among industry watchers about whether middle-class African-Americans were simply not being addressed by mainstream Hollywood movies. Its final gross box office receipts were $50.6 million, although it was critically panned scoring only 16 percent approval rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes.6 On its opening weekend, February 24, 2006, Perry's film version of Madea's Family Reunion opened at #1 with $30.3 million. The film eventually grossed $65 million and, like Diary, almost all of it in the United States. The film was jump-started by an hour-long appearance by Perry and his co-stars on The Oprah Winfrey Show.7 His next project for Lions Gate, Daddy's Little Girls, starring Gabrielle Union and Idris Elba was released in the U.S. on February 14, 2007. It grossed over $31 million.8 Perry wrote, directed, produced and starred in his next movie, Why Did I Get Married?, which was released on October 12, 2007. It opened as the top-grossing movie in its first weekend, earning $21.4 million at the box office. It is loosely based on the play which Perry wrote in 2004. Filming began March 5, 2007, in Whistler, British Columbia, Vancouver, then Atlanta, where Perry opened his own studio. Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal, Jill Scott, and Tasha Smith appear in the film. Perry's 2008 film, Meet the Browns, which was released on March 21, opened at #2 with a $20,082,809 weekend gross.9 The Family That Preys opened on September 12, 2008, and grossed over $35.1 million as of October. Madea Goes to Jail opened at #1 on February 20, 2009, grossing $41 million and becoming his largest opening to date. This was Perry's seventh film with Lions Gate Entertainment. On May 1, 2012 a four-alarm fire engulfed portions of the studio complex, causing the partial collapse of one building.10 Less than three months later, another fire broke out on the roof of another building on the morning of August 27, 2012. Studio locations Before moving to its present location in 2008, the studios used the former studio space at 99 Krog Street in Inman Park on the BeltLine in central Atlanta. Perry had purchased the land from Atlanta Stage Works in 2006 for a reported $7 million.11 The studios are as of 2013 being converted into the Krog Street Market. In 2014, Tyler Perry Studios announced plans to acquire Fort McPherson, a US Army base in use until 2011, to use it as a production studio.12 The sale was approved in June 2015.13 The 330 acres contain 37 houses and buildings, 200 acres of greenery and open space, a corporate headquarters and production facility known as the "Dream Building", and areas planned to become 14 sound stages.14 34th Street Films 34th Street Films is a studio within Tyler Perry Studios that is for non-comedy films. Tyler also uses this name for producing other productions not written by him. The first film released from 34th Street Films is For Colored Girls which is based on the 1975 award-winning stage play about the lives of eight African-American women and the issues they face. The second film distributed by 34th Street Films is Tyler Perry Presents Peeples. Peeples is about a guy proposing to his girlfriend who has to go meet her wealthy, well-off Hamptons family at their Sag Harbor, New York mansion